KUWAIT CITY, Feb 7: Lawyers Areej Hamadeh, Bashayer Al-Ghanem, and Afrah Al-Sharad, on behalf of 24 Kuwaiti women, filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court against the unconstitutionality of the second paragraph of article 16 of the decree-law No. 120/2023 regarding the law on elections for members of the National Assembly, demanding the invalidation of the law. The appellants explained that the second paragraph of article 16 of the decree-law No. 120/2023 on the law on elections for members of the National Assembly is marred by a constitutional flaw due to a formal defect in the legal wording.

This does not affect the National Assembly’s approval of this paragraph by law, as it does not go beyond removing the constitutional defect that required its issuance. The facts of the appeal are that on August 27, 2023, Kuwait Al-Youm newspaper (official gazette) published law No. 120/2023 regarding the elections of members of the National Assembly. There is a formal defect in the wording that led to a suspicion of violating the constitution. It is in the second paragraph of article 16, which stipulates that exercising the right to elections and nominations requires adherence to the provisions of the Constitution, the law, and the Islamic law.

The application of the second paragraph of article 16 contradicts the principle of progression of legal rules in violation of articles 2 and 6 of the Constitution. It also included discrimination between citizens based on religion in violation of article 29 of the Constitution, and included restrictions on personal freedoms in violation of article 30 of the Constitution, since Islamic Sharia is a main source of the Constitution - that is, one of the sources of the Constitution and not the only source of the Constitution - and since the rank of the law is lower than the rank of the Constitution. The appellants believe that the wording of the second paragraph of article 16 of law No. 120/2023 regarding elections for members of the National Assembly includes a formal defect in the legal wording that conflicts with several constitutional texts.

They hence addressed the direct appeal to the competent authority, which is the Constitutional Court, as it is the body that decides on disputes related to the constitutionality of laws, as stated in the text of article 173 of the Constitution, which stipulates that “The law designates the judicial body responsible for adjudicating disputes related to the constitutionality of laws and regulations and its powers and the procedures it follows. The law complements the right of both the government and concerned parties to appeal to that body the constitutionality of laws and regulations. If the aforementioned authority decides that a law or regulation is unconstitutional, it shall be considered as if it did not exist) and also as stated in Law Establishing the Constitutional Court No. 14 of 1973.” It is worth highlighting that the appeal was submitted by Areej Hamada, Adila Al-Sayer, Laila Al-Ghanim, Lulu Al-Khaled, Noura Al- Arfaj, Mona AlGhanim, Moudi Al-Saghir, Ghada Al-Ghanim, Maha Al-Mojil, Fatima Al-Aqrouqa, Nawal Al-Rasheed, Ashwaq Al- Mudhaf, Zainab Boushahri, Diaa Al-Ghanim, Shifa Abdullah, Khadija Al-Qallaf, Hanan Al- Zayed, Sarah Al-Dalali, Fatima Al-Ali, Nadia Al-Othman, Reem Al-Aidan and Nabila Al- Kharafi.

By Jaber Al-Hamoud
Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff